This is the first of a new experiment ~ Dear NOTCOT ~ think of it as our version of letters to the editor ~ SO many stories of amazing experiences filled with inspiration and creativity from our friends like you ~ i’m working on convincing you to share them with us in your own words! And filled with pics of course, since its fun to see the world through your eyes! So hopefully more to come! And if you think you have a visually inspiring adventure to share, feel free to drop us a line!

Heath Ceramics ~ stunning tile and table work ~ i hadn’t realized that they’ve been doing their thing since 1948. Currently lusting after their tile work! Their main store and studio are in Sausalito and they recently teamed up with Adam Silverman of Atwater Pottery for their LA location. Julie Wolfson had a chance to go hang out and chat with Adam as he worked on pieces for Playmountain in Tokyo! On the next page you can see her adventures at Heath filled pics and quotes she came back with!

If you’ve been wandering around San Francisco lately, you may have noticed a lot of colorful mummified mannequins and objects around the city. Possibly accompanied by colorful posters that are large fabric swatches. If you’re really lucky, perhaps a mini of these swatches even arrived in your mail ~ in the form of one of the VIP Tickets to tomorrow night’s Levi’s x Opening Ceremony Launch Party! (If you weren’t so lucky, you still can be ~ just convinced Philip to give a few away ~ ENTER TO WIN, HERE!)

What an incredible collaboration ~ Levi’s x Opening Ceremony and design collective, CITIZEN:Citizen. There’s an unmistakable signature to all things CITIZEN:Citizen touches ~ and this is certainly the work of Philip Wood! Playful, with a high art flair, bringing a smile to your face before you even understand what is going on fully… and as you delve deeper into it, his concepts reach further than you expect! I can’t wait to see what the transformed basement of the Levi’s flagship store will be like tomorrow night, unfortunately i’ll be on a red-eye to NY, but hopefully some of you can go experience it for me! For now… take a peek at the scene around san francisco, and the beautifully designed invitations and posters!

“I’m on a horse.” Hahaha. Ok, i’m sorry, i’ve been watching this one over and over for days and sharing it with people and it just cracks me up every time. So just in case you haven’t already seen the Old Spice “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” ad… watch it above. If you have? Watch it again!

Now even more fascinating, i love the interview embedded after the jump where “Leo Laporte interviews Craig Allen and Eric Kallman of Wieden + Kennedy to find out how Old Spice “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” was made.” ~ And it just gets MORE amazing. They did it in practically one shot on a 3 day shoot… building half a boat on the beach at the waters edge ~ having a shower set that gets crane lifted away ~ and as he sits down on a mechanism that rolls him onto a real horse! The only CG stuff ~ they painted out the device… and they superimposed the overflowing diamonds that were coming out of a fake hand…

p.s.
you can even find the actor, Isaiah Mustafa, on twitter and imdb.

Oh, Incase, you’ve done it again. Your surprise packages always blow me away… and now i’m terribly jealous of your amazing TAPE!!! Matte black with the Incase signature topographic pattern in gloss… you’ve taken packing tape lust to a new level! AND its on a soft touch rubberized feeling matte black BOX. Yes, i couldn’t help rubbing the box before i even got to opening it.

Of course, once inside the box, there is one of the 3 new Evan Hecox (Incase curated by Arkitip) sets of iphone cases and laptop sleeves ~ this one is the Tokyo edition (there is also London and New York!)… Beautiful details, take a peek at the artwork and unboxing on the next page…

And as always ~ love the Incase motto “A better experience through good design.”

It was one of those nights. Just needed something amusing and random to do ~ so a late night adventure with Linhchi meant scheming over the fire pit at Johnnies, then suddenly going to Home Depot to buy spray paint, popping by the other house to grab some penguins… then to the garage! To lay on lounge chairs, take silly pictures (testing out my new purse cam the d-lux 4 ~ it makes some impressively pretty colors, esp in low light), and spray paint tester pieces of a sad broken puma penguin… we learned things like, penguin looks awesome just about anywhere… lacquer and gloss weren’t working so well… light coats of matte seem ok, but needs a few coats and then some clear gloss… perhaps tomorrow in the hot sun we’ll try spraying down a whole penguin… but as for tonight, the pictures looked adorably eerie as the purple penguin cast poignant shadows and sprayed down pieces of his orange friend. or enemy. you can make up your own backstory. See the pics on the next page!

On cell phone obsessions ~ i love a great button. I used to love my old Sony Ericsson joystick. There’s something about my blackberry’s trackball thats just so fun to spin. That indentation of the iPhone button just feels good to click! Latest button lust? On the new HTC Desire and HTC Legend phones launching today… they feature a brand new OPTICAL TRACKBALL! In the conference call announcing them they said trackball, in the press release it says joystick… really you can call it what you want, basically they’ve described it as a little optical sensor ever so slightly depressed in the center of a single solid ring of a button. I can’t wait to try this physical interface in person!

Perhaps one of the most enticing aspects of HTC, beyond their hardware that feels SO good in your hand… is their dedication to great UX ~ above and beyond what is provided through Android and Win Mobile! At the Mobile World Congress today, they are not only announcing new phones, but also the latest iteration of HTC Sense - “HTC Sense is a user experience focused on putting people at the centre by making phones work in a more simple and natural way. This experience revolves around three fundamental principles that were developed by observing and listening to how people live and communicate. These core tenets of Make It Mine, Stay Close and Discover the Unexpected continue to be the key to the new HTC Sense experience.” The new version adds more features that are focused around your most important people with the HTC Friend Stream (pulling in from facebook, twitter, flickr, and more). See more details on the next page!

Laguna Beach ~ so many surf brands have their home base in the OC ~ and recently so many hotels with special designer suites ~ but somehow i never heard about the Casa Surf Project over at La Casa del Camino until now! The hotel is perched less than a block from the beach, has an old spanish styled look and feel… and somehow the smell and hallways remind me of college… something frat house-y about it? Or maybe that was the crowd too… fascinating thing about the Casa Surf Project is that they gave 10 brands and their designers 10 suites, and let them have their way with it - “Action sports icons like Billabong Men’s and Billabong Women’s, Rip Curl, etnies, Roxy, Quiksilver, L* Space, Lost International along with Riviera Magazine and Glaceau have teamed with Southern California’s finest designers to create the Casa Surf Suites with a portion of the proceeds from each room donated to key charities for the first year.” I love the moroccan inspired Lost room… how far they took the decor, and the furniture choices… you have to see how fun the lights looked at night! And the way they really customized the walls… so beautiful! Billabong and Quicksilver are my other favorites ~ see more pics on the next page, and see full information on each suite here!

HAPPY Valentine’s Day, Chinese New Year, and President’s Day! (Did i miss any? What a long weekend this is!) And i’m back! After quite a bit of travel/meetup madness, drove back to LA, then hid out last night, only to wake up to the crashing of socal waves outside the window.. and i’m feeling more excited and rejuvenated than ever for what 2010 has in store for NOTCOT.

SO! To celebrate this holiday trifecta of a weekend, our friends at SUCK UK have put together a super fun bundle for you… I’ve decided to split things up a tiny bit ~ 2 ways to win! So here’s what to do and what you might win:

Mixtape USB Stick ~ the TWITTER giveaway ~ follow me, @NOTCOT, and tweet @NOTCOT with your pick for the ultimate mixtape song and use #notsuck so i can find it. I’ll D the winner on Tuesday the 16th of Feb, so make sure you’re following @NOTCOT!

During the #time4wine tweetfest up in Napa this weekend ~ Julie and Jonathan brought me to their Nickel and Nickel Single Vineyard Wines open house… at first i questioned whether i wanted to be up at 9 after a full day of travel and tastings to go to another tasting… essentially, for breakfast! But those two know their stuff… and thus begins my new fascination with wooden wine boxes! Of all of the ones i’ve seen (and the wines i tasted this weekend) ~ Nickel and Nickel’s are my favorite. Also their stunning barn gone mod is beautiful! I couldn’t stop staring up at the beams ~ and the way they’ve carved out a lab within the space. The juxtaposition of sterile meets rustic is stunning. So take a peek at their attention to detail through every visual element of their brand on the next page…

So after a bit of hotel horrors ~ and bouncing in and out of the vitale over the last week ~ with sf gift fair and macworld happening, SF hotels seem a bit packed… just decided to check out the Clift Hotel in San Francisco which is part of the Morgans Hotel Group (with those awesome “The world needs to discuss it over drinks. The world needs more interesting.” ads i adore.)… they were nice enough to upgrade me to experience one of their suites, and i’m currently working at that “through the… orange… looking glass” feeling table above… and really, between the bizarre world within it and the stunning city views here, it’s hard to focus! It’s also incredibly calming and relaxing with it’s lavender entry way, light grey carpeting, and light wood furnishings… exactly what i needed after quite the crazy last few days! Go take a peek into their fun, spacious, suite i’m living in for the next few days on the next page!

Apologies for going a little quiet the last few days ~ gave up internet for wine this weekend for the second annual #Time4Wine event in Napa, where a bunch of social media folks came together for good times and wine tasting at wineries with twitter presences… SO fun, so delicious, and yes, there may be a case in my car… and many silly pics went up at Life.NOTCOT.com where random cell phone pics and daily randomness with no home go. There was even a Salamanzar of Rose… yes 12 bottles worth! 9L! It’s HUGE! It also disappeared in no time. Additionally, got back into SF city, had a bit of a hotel disaster that i thought would explode my brain, and that lead in to a rather thrown off Monday… and now it’s Tuesday! Already! So here’s a roundup of some of the awesomeness that has been flowing through NOTCOT.org the last week. As usual (or not so usual, seeing as roundups haven’t been as frequent as i intend to make them) ~ click any of the squares to find out more!

Looking down out this huge concave window in my Hotel Vitale room, has been strangely mesmerizing and inspiring to stare out of… from the spiderweb mess of bus cables to the curved arcs of the road and diamond of the cross walk and just watching the traffic/people flow through it… it kind of looks like a math or physics diagram…

Anyhow, Hotel Vitale has been one of my favorite spots to hide out in San Francisco since i moved out of this city… and while i’ve been in quite a few different rooms, this is definitely one of the most unique. I sleep better than usual in their beds… this room has a nice tub with a view… and this ridiculously large window! As well as the usual nice huge desk space to work at… and chaise to lounge on. Take a peek at a few pictures of the view in both day and night, as well as a peek at the room!

They are finally nearly here! Andrew Bell teased me with sneak peeks of toys in the making on his phone over lunch a few months back ~ so long as i promised to stay quiet. Well, it’s been hard! Because, we all know as fun as the Google Android phones and UI are… i’m pretty smitten with the adorable mascot. And here they finally are! A series of blind box toys bringing that adorable little Android to life!

The details? Illustrator and toy designer Andrew Bell has teamed up with a few friends at Google’s Android project to bring their green mascot to life. Presenting Android mini collectibles series 01! Each 3” vinyl figure sports one of 12 different possible designs and features a rotating head and arms. Packed in “blind boxes” so you don’t know which design you get until you open it up. Pick one up and take a chance or grab a case for a near-complete set. Available in an initial limited release later this month from dyzplastic and specialty retailers.

If you’re ready, see more details on the next page! (And notice he says “Series 01”… will there be more???)

Fusion Brands’ FoodPod ~ i ran into it at A+R and it was so odd, i couldn’t stop poking at it. Then i had to buy it. It’s another silicon creation from Fusion Brands to help in the kitchen… they are certainly creative with their ability to solve problems i didn’t even realize i had. Like keeping my veggies/eggs separate from other things, or together in the pot for easy removal… here you can fill the FoodPod with just about anything… and then you can dunk it into your boiling pot of water, and even hook the angler fish looking top to the lip of the pot for easy retrieval! lift and autostrain ~ unhook the cap, and your food is ready! See more pics of it on the next page!

Who knew wine in a bag could be so… designer? functional? pretty? Or that a decanter could aerate and feed the wine right back into the bottle? Leave it to Danish company MENU to help us rethink the way we interact with our wine! I love the the Wine Breather Carafe ~ which can be used either by attaching it to the bottle, and flipping it… then flipping it back into the bottle, OR serving it out of the carafe. It’s designed by Norm, idea and patent by Peter Orsig. (Doesn’t the shape remind you of those adorable Aladdin sake bottles?) Also fun is the Baggy Wine Coat designed by Jakob Wagner ~ wine in a bag never looked so ruggedly high tech. Also cute in the new collection ~ Norm’s stackable, spherical, tripod set for condiments! So playful, they’d be delightful in a restaurant! Take a peek at all of these up close on the next page!